Reptile Guide

December 13th, 2010 | Published in Reptiles

Reptile Guide
What sort of tortoises can survive in Pennsylvania?

I was just idly wondering what sort of tortoises can be kept in Pennsylvania? I saw an article in the news recently about a guy who had a pet tortoise in an outdoors pen in Vermont that got stolen. Intrigued, I looked them up, but the first few guides I found on the internet claimed that pet turtles can't even be kept outdoors in Pennsylvania, let alone Vermont. I -know- I've seen wild ones at least, just crawling around before, so clearly some turtles, perhaps not the variety that are used for pets, but some turtles do survive in Pennsylvania, though I have no idea how a reptile outlasts our winters.

Anyways, I'm not really thinking of getting a pet, I was just wondering.

Some species can survive through the average American winter... Namely, Russian tortoises and some Mediterranean tortoises (i.e. Hermann's). These species hibernate over winter. Some people up north succeed in keeping more tropical and desert species, who don't hibernate (i.e. Sulcata and Leopard tortoises), by having a heated shed available for the tortoise. There are also many who keep species that are small enough to bring in for the winter, whether tropical, desert, or otherwise.

The native "tortoises" you've seen are most likely box turtles, a primarily land-dwelling turtle.